The two Sanskrit works here translated — Shat-chakra-nirupana ("Description of the Six Centres, or Chakras") and Paduka-Panchaka ("Fivefold Footstool") — deal with a particular form of Tantrik Yoga named Kundalini Yoga, or, as some works call it, Bhuta-shuddhi. These names refer to the Kundalini Shakti, or Supreme Power in the human body by the arousing of which the Yoga is achieved, and to the purification of the Elements of the body (Bhuta-shuddhi) which takes place up on that event. This Yoga is effected by a process technically known as Shat-chakra-bheda, or piercing of the six Centres or Regions (Chakra) or Lotuses (Padma) of the body (which the work describes) by the agency of Kundalini Shakti, which, in order to give it an English name, I have here called the Serpent Power1. Kundala means coiled. The power is the Goddess (Devi) Kundalini, or that which is coiled; for Her form is that of a coiled and sleeping serpent in the lowest bodily centre, at the base of the spinal column, until by the means described She is aroused in that Yoga which is named after Her. Kundalini is the Divine Cosmic Energy in bodies (v, post). The Saptabhumi, or seven regions (Lokas)2, are, as popularly understood, an exoteric presentment of the inner Tantrik teaching regarding the seven centres3.
The Yoga is called Tantrik for a twofold reason. It will be found mentioned in the Yoga Upanishads which refer to the Centers, or Chakras, and in some of the Puranas. The treatises on Hathayoga also deal with the subject. We find even similar notions in systems other than the Indian, from which possibly in some cases they have been borrowed. Thus, in the Risala-i-haq-numa, by Prince Mahomed Dara Shikoh4, a description is given of three centers "Mother of Brain", or "Spherical heart" (Dil-i-muddawar); the "Cedar heart" (Dil-i-sanowbari); and the Dil-i-nilofari, or Lily heart5. Other references may be found in the works of the Mahomedan Sufis. So some of the Sufi fraternities (as the Naqshbandi) are said6 to have devised, or rather borrowed, from the Indian Yogis7 the Kundalini method as a means to realization8. I am told that correspondences are discoverable between the Indian (Asiatic) Shastra and the American-Indian Maya Scripture of the Zunis called the Popul Vuh9. My informant tells me that their "air-tube" is the Sushumna; their "twofold air-tube" the Nadis Ida and Pingala. "Hurakan," or lightning, is Kundalini, and the centres are depicted by animal glyphs. Similar notions have been reported to me as being held in the secret teaching of other communities. That the doctrine and practice should be widespread, we might expect, if it has a foundation on fact. This form of Yoga is, however, in particular associated with the Tantras or Agamas, firstly, because these Scriptures are largely concerned therewith. In fact, such orderly descriptions in practical full detail as have been written are to be found chiefly in the Hathayoga works and Tantras which are the manuals, not only of Hindu worship, but of its occultism. Next, Yoga through action on the lowest centre seems characteristic of the Tantrik system, the adepts of which are the custodians of the practical knowledge whereby the general directions in the books may be practically applied. The system is of a Tantrik character also in respect of its selection of the chief centre of consciousness. Various people have in antiquity assigned to various parts of the body the seat of the "soul" or life, such as the blood,10 the heart and the breath. Generally the brain was not so regarded. The Vaidik system posits the heart as the chief centre of Consciousness — a relic of which notion we also still preserve in such phrases as "take it to heart" and to "learn by heart". Sadhaka, which is one of the five functions of Pitta,11 and which is situated in the heart, indirectly assists in the performance of cognitive functions by keeping up the rhythmic cardiac contractions and it has been suggested12 that it was perhaps this view of the heart's constructions which predisposed Indian physiologists to hold it to be the seat of cognition. According to the Tantras, however, the chief centres of consciousness are to be found in the Chakras of the cerebra-spinal system and in the upper brain (Sahasrara), which they describe, though the heart is also recognized as a seat of the Jivatma, or embodied spirit, in its aspect as vital principle or Prana.13 It is for the reasons mentioned that the first verse of the Yoga which is to be achieved "according to the Tantras" (Tantranusarena) — that is, as Kalicharana, its Commentator, says, "following the authority of the Tantras".
- 1 One of the names of this Devi is Bhujangi, or the Serpent.
- 2 The seven "worlds" Bhuh, Bhuvah, Svah, Mahah, Jana, Tapah, Satya. See my "Wave of Bliss" (Comm, to v. 85). Lokas are what are seen (lokyante) — that is, attained — and are hence the fruits of Karma in the form of particular re-birth. Satyananda's "Comm. on Isha Up.," Mantra 2. See p. 258.
- 3 That is, the six Chakras and the upper cerebral centre, or Sahasrara. As to Upanishads and Puranas, see post.
- 4 "The Compass of Truth." The author was eldest son of the Emperor Shah-i-Jehan, and died A.D. 1659. Its teaching is alleged to be that of the secret doctrine of the "Apostle of God."
- 5 Chapter I on Alam-i-hasut: the physical plane, or what the Hindus call the Jagrat state. Ed. Rai Bahadur Srisha Chandra Vasu.
- 6 See "The Development of Metaphysics in Persia," by Shaikh Muhammad Igbal, p. 110.
- 7 Al-Biruni is said to have translated Patanjali's works, as also the Sankhya Satras, into Arabie at the beginning of the eleventh century.
- 8 The author cited, however, says: "Such methods of contemplation are quite unislamic in character, and the higher Sufis do not attach any importance to them."
- 9 A translation was, I am told, begun and not finished by the occultist James Pryse in Lucifer, the old Theosophical journal, which I have not seen.
- 10 Cf. the Biblical saying, "The blood is the life".
- 11 See p.12 of the Introduction to the third volume of my Tantrik Texts (Prapanchasara Tantra).
- 12 Kaviraja Kunjalala Bhishagaratna in his edition of the Sushruta Samhita. Another explanation, however may be given-namely, that during man's history the importance of the various perceptive centres has in fact varied.
- 13 According to some Indian views, the brain is the centre of the mind and senses, and the heart that of life. Charaka says that the heart is the root from which spring all other parts of the body, and is the centre of some of the functions or organs. According to Sushruta, the heart is the seat of sensations.
